Special Presentations

FRI., 8/29, 7 p.m.
NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER
USA | 1980 | DCP | 101 min.
Director: Robert Butler
Cast: James Brolin, Cliff Gorman, Dan Hedaya

In a frenzied, sweat-soaked race across the wreckage of late-’70s New York, a former cop (James Brolin, in his finest leading role) hunts the deranged kidnapper of his daughter—mistaken for the child of a wealthy tycoon. As the clock ticks, the chase barrels through crumbling neighborhoods, sleazy dives, and shadowy tunnels, with violence lurking around every corner. A cult favorite for fans of NYC filmmaking in the “Fun City” era, this relentlessly gritty action thriller begins with a premise that nods to Kurosawa’s High and Low, but ultimately creates its own unique propulsive energy. Night of the Juggler has been out of circulation for years and can now be seen in a new 4K restoration. “Big fan of this film… Lots of old school, sleazy NYC on display here.” (Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Baker).

SAT., 8/30, 7 p.m.
LOVERS ON THE BRIDGE (LES AMANTS DU PONT-NEUF)
France | 1991 | DCP | 129 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Leos Carax
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Denis Lavant, Edith Scob

One of the great films of the 1990s, this delirious love story from the director of Holy Motors follows a pair of homeless artists camped out on Paris’s Pont Neuf bridge. Stars Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant fully inhabit these star-crossed tramps, giving exuberantly physical performances that match the highwire energy of the film’s show-stopping setpieces—not least an unforgettable fireworks display. Notorious during production for its budget-busting, schedule-flouting shoot that effectively derailed Carax’s career, this freewheeling knockout leaves it all on the screen in a blaze of glory. A new 4K DCP restoration will be screened.

FRI., 9/12, 7 p.m.
APOCALYPSE NOW
USA | 1979 | DCP | 153 min.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall

Sheen plays Capt. Willard, a military officer sent on a secret mission to assassinate rogue officer Col. Kurtz (Brando) in the darkest days of the Vietnam War. Coppola’s epic retelling of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness co-stars an Oscar-nominated Duvall as the surf-mad Col. Kilgore and the supporting cast includes Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford, and, in his movie debut, Laurence Fishburne. A new 4K DCP restoration of Apocalypse Now’s original 1979 “roadshow version” will be screened and every attendee will receive a reproduction of the original program booklet. 

FRI., 9/19, 7 p.m.
HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER’S APOCALYPSE
USA | 1991 | DCP | 96 min.
Director: Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola

In the late 1970s, Francis Ford Coppola set out to make Apocalypse Now in the jungles of the Philippines—only to find the production spiraling into chaos that eerily mirrored the film’s own descent into madness. Hearts of Darkness captures this harrowing behind-the-scenes ordeal through footage shot by Coppola’s wife Eleanor and revealing interviews with cast and crew. As Burden of Dreams did for Fitzcarraldo, Hearts of Darkness became a quintessential movie about the near total unraveling of a now canonized cinema classic.

FRI., 9/26, 7 p.m.
DONNIE DARKO
USA | 2001 | 35mm | 113 min.
Director: Richard Kelly
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze

Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a troubled high schooler who narrowly misses a plummeting jet engine after it lands in his suburban bedroom. Then, his life is beset by a series of strange visions involving a prophet in a grim bunny suit. Like no other movie, writer/director Kelly’s stunning first feature and bona-fide cult smash is a mixture of teen angst dramas, small-town satire and time-bending science-fiction. The eclectic cast also includes Swayze as a sleazy motivational speaker and Barrymore (who also produced the movie) as a sympathetic teacher. A newly struck 35mm print of Donnie Darko’s original theatrical release version will be shown.

SAT., 9/27, 7 p.m.
ONE SECOND
China | 2020 | DCP | 104 min. | Mandarin with English subtitles
Director: Zhang Yimou
Cast: Liu Haocun, Zhang Yi, Fan Wei

Acclaimed Fifth Generation Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s (Raise the Red Lantern, Hero, Shadow) masterpiece is set during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. Between two remote outposts in the Gobi Desert, a purloined single reel of 35mm film becomes the prized object in an extended cat-and-mouse game between an escaped political prisoner and a scrappy, orphaned teenage girl. The battling protagonists’ separate reasons for wanting to possess the reel are slowly revealed after they hike their way to the next village oasis and encounter the film’s original owner, a rather arrogant traveling projectionist who faces his own difficulties while preparing to put on an evening screening of the 1964 propaganda epic, Heroic Sons and Daughters, for the local citizens. Soon, the three main characters’ individual struggles are laid bare while they join forces with the tiny community to ensure that the show goes on. Employing accurately austere period detail and seamlessly blending the comic hijinks of the opening with the emotional drama of the second half, Zhang has delivered an undeniable love letter to the power of cinema and a gift to cinephiles everywhere.

SUN, 9/28, 2 p.m.
THE ITALIAN STRAW HAT
France | 1928 | DCP | 110 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: René Clair
Cast: Albert Préjean, Olga Chekhova, Geymond Vital

On his wedding day, Fadinard’s horse eats a hat belonging to a woman who is secretly rendezvousing with a military officer. Searching for a replacement hat in order to help the woman cover her tracks, Fadinard juggles social chaos, escalating deceptions, and mounting pressure while trying not to derail his own marriage. One of the drollest, funniest farces of the silent era, The Italian Straw Hat is our official selection for 2025’s Silent Movie Day! A new 4K DCP restoration will be screened, accompanied by live piano from David Drazin.

FRI., 10/10, 7 p.m.
ERASERHEAD
USA | 1977 | 35mm | 89 min.
Director: David Lynch
Cast: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Laurel Near

Lynch’s first feature is, in the filmmaker’s own words, “a dream of dark and troubling things.” The hero and title character, Henry (Jack Nance), faces a number of horrifying obstacles in meeting a girlfriend, a dinner with her parents, and procreating.  Produced over several years at the American Film Institute, the film launched Lynch as a major new talent admired by cinephiles and filmmakers all over the world. It stands today as a milestone in personal, independent filmmaking.

SAT., 10/11, 7 p.m.
IL FUOCO
Italy | 1915 | DCP | 51 min.
Director: Giovanni Pastrone
Cast: Pina Menichelli, Febo Mari, Felice Minotti

Menichelli is one of the cinema’s first femmes fatales as a mysterious poetess who casts her spell over a naive painter. Passion ignites swiftly, only to collapse into madness and ruin, as desire gives way to obsession. Responsible for the legendary historical epic Cabiria, director Giovanni Pastrone (using a pseudonym) masterfully distills the melodrama of Il fuoco (“The Fire”) to an intense dance of seduction, elevated by striking visual effects and a precisely composed mise-en-scène. The restoration from Turin’s Museo Nazionale del Cinema will be presented with live piano accompaniment by celebrated musician Stefano Maccagno. Presented with the support of the Department of French and Italian at UW-Madison.

FRI., 10/17, 7 p.m.
8 ½
Italy | 1963 | 35mm | 138 min. | Italian with English subtitles
Director: Federico Fellini
Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Claudia Cardinale

Mastroianni plays a very Fellini-esque director haunted by professional and personal crises as he attempts to pull together both his current film production and his complicated life. Through a fractured narrative structure incorporating dream and fantasy sequences, and truly remarkable visuals, Fellini examines the complexities of the creative process in a manner as breathtaking as it is entertaining. A new 35mm print will be screened! “One of the all time greats. Federico Fellini, no one like him. No one could touch this guy…a cinema giant!” (David Lynch).

FRI., 10/24, 7 p.m.
MOULIN ROUGE!
Australia, USA | 2001 | 35mm | 128 min.
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent

In fin de siècle Paris, idealistic young writer Christian (McGregor) joins a ragtag troupe of Bohemians and falls hopelessly in love with Satine (Kidman), the dazzling courtesan and star of the Moulin Rouge. Though promised to a powerful Duke in exchange for funding their theatrical dreams, Satine finds herself torn between ambition, duty, and love. As Christian and Satine’s secret romance blossoms behind the scenes, jealousy, deception, and tragedy close in. Luhrmann’s kinetic, electric jukebox musical, inspired by Puccini’s La Bohème, is one of the most dazzling entertainments of the early 21st Century. Co-presented by Madison Opera and their production of La Bohème, November 7 & 9.

FRI., 10/31, 7 p.m.
THE HITCHER
USA | 1986 | 35mm | 97 min.
Director: Robert Harmon
Cast: C. Thomas Howell, Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh

One stormy night in West Texas, a lonely driver (Howell) picks up a hitchhiker (Hauer). The hitcher turns out to be a psychotic killer who dares the man behind the wheel to stop the killing spree. Unfolding with the surreal clarity of a waking nightmare, Robert Harmon’s sun-baked thriller features gorgeous widescreen cinematography, an early star turn from Jennifer Jason Leigh, and a third-act twist both horrifying and haunting — making it the perfect Halloween night vehicle. (BR)

FRI., 11/7, 7 p.m.
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
Australia | 1975 | DCP | 107 min.
Director: Peter Weir
Cast: Rachel Roberts, Helen Morse, Jacki Weaver

On Valentine’s Day in 1900, three young women and an instructor from Appleyard College disappear during a visit to Hanging Rock, a massive volcanic formation. Adapted from a novel by Joan Lindsay, Weir’s movie traces the disappearance and the aftermath, resulting in a haunting, unsettling, and at times beautiful cinematic experience. An hypnotic study of class conflict and sexual repression in Australia during the Victorian era, Picnic at Hanging Rock will be shown in a new 4K restoration.

FRI., 11/14, 7 p.m.
DREAM OF LIGHT (EL SOL DEL MEMBRILLO)
Spain | 1992 | 35mm | 133 min. | Spanish with English subtitles
Director: Victor Erice

In his backyard garden, painter Antonio López García spends the autumn attempting to capture his beloved quince tree on canvas. But the muse of this outdoor still-life is gradually changing, and as López patiently compensates for the changing sunlight and weather, the tree begins to lose its fruit. Spirit of the Beehive director Victor Erice’s superb documentary observes López’s meticulous process in fine-grain detail, affording us an exceedingly rare glimpse into how an artist creates their work. (MK)

SAT., 11/15, 7 p.m.
$ (DOLLARS)
USA | 1971 | DCP | 119 min.
Director: Richard Brooks
Cast: Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Gert Frobe

In this delicious hippie-chic heist thriller, Beatty plays a bank security consultant who teams up with happy hooker Hawn to steal money from an assortment of bad guys who are all using a Hamburg bank’s safety deposit boxes to stash their illicit cash. Featuring wonderful support from Gert Fröbe and a handful of other great character actors, incredible German location cinematography, and a fabulously funky score from Quincy Jones, Dollars is a delight — and a clear inspiration for Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s series. (BR)

SAT., 11/22, 7 p.m.
FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER
France | 1971 | DCP | 82 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Robert Bresson
Cast: Guillaume des Forêts, Isabelle Weingarten, Maurice Monnoyer

Set within a bohemian world in contemporary Paris, Four Nights of a Dreamer follows Jacques, a lonely artist searching for the girl of his dreams. One night he saves the beautiful Marthe from plunging into the Seine in despair over her rejection by an avoidant lover. Jacques compassionately attempts to reunite the young woman with her beau, but his feelings for Marthe soon become less than platonic. An adaptation of the same Dostoevsky story that also inspired films by Luchino Visconti and James Gray, Bresson’s previously hard-to-see version is told in his inimitable minimalist style, yielding surprisingly romantic and emotional results. Plus, Paris was never more beautifully photographed at night. A new 4K restoration will be screened.

SAT., 12/6, 7 p.m.
BRAZIL
USA | 1985 | DCP | 143 min.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Michael Palin

Gilliam’s surrealist masterpiece evokes both George Orwell and Monty Python for a devastatingly funny satire set “somewhere in the 20th century.” Jonathan Pryce stars as humble clerk Sam Lowry, who works for a massive, faceless bureaucratic organization and daydreams of another life. Robert DeNiro co-stars as a freelance plumber deemed a terrorist by the state who brings Sam into a world that almost matches his fantasies. The great supporting cast includes Gilliam’s fellow Pythonite Michael Palin, Ian Holm, Jim Broadbent, and Bob Hoskins. A brand new 4K restoration of Gilliam’s director’s cut will be presented in honor of Brazil’s 40th anniversary.

FRI., 12/12, 7 p.m.
KISAPMATA
Philippines | 1981 | DCP | 99 min.
Director: Mike De Leon
Cast: Vic Silayan, Charo Santos, Jay Ilangan

A young woman’s announcement of her pregnancy and intent to marry triggers the wrath of her domineering father, a retired policeman whose grip over his family turns increasingly suffocating. As the couple tries to build a life together, the father’s manipulations escalate into a chilling battle for control. Inspired by true events, Mike De Leon’s psychological thriller unspools with terrifying precision, exposing the violent extremes of patriarchal power. A new 4K restoration will be screened.